Good news for Arizona Deer & Elk Hunters

Study Finds Arizona Deer & Elk CWD-Free 4/14/2009

No evidence of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) was found during a recent study of Arizona deer and elk, which concluded this week.

The study completed Monday by the Arizona Game and Fish Department examined samples from 2,343 hunter-harvested or road-killed deer and elk during Arizona’s 2008-09 hunting season. The disease was not present in any of the samples, according to Outdoor News Daily.

Approximately 12,500 Arizona deer and elk have been tested since 1998 for signs of the lethal illness. So far, the disease has yet to turn up in any of the tested animals.

Chronic wasting disease has been detected in Utah, Colorado and New Mexico deer and elk populations.

“We nearly doubled our surveillance and collection of samples in areas of concern where neighboring states have detected CWD, which makes announcing another season with no detection in Arizona very encouraging,” Clint Luedtke, interim wildlife health specialist for the department, said. “However, we are going to continue to focus heavily in areas that border Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico during the 2009-10 season.”

Hunters are encouraged to continue participating in the monitoring of the illness during the 2009-2010 hunting season by bringing harvested deer and elk heads to any Arizona Game and Fish office, Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. for free CWD testing.

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."

As stated before the only CWD we have had here is about 200 miles from the AZ line. Isolated around White Sands Missile Range and the Sacramento mountains. Glad they will help cut down on our cost of checking the Gila and areas that border the AZ line.

"It is better to rule than serve"